the bullying issue
by Chloe Llewellyn 39
Summary: Set a few years after the Hofstadter Equation. Please read the prologue
1. Prologue

It had taken Leonard and Penny a few years to create their little family. After Megan's birth Penny really wasn't sure if another baby was on the cards. Her father had told Leonard to stack the deck. Talk to Penny about the problems and then try again. It took four long years to convince Penny to try again, and a further two for Megan's little brother to be born. Elliot's birth had been much easier meaning that just eighteen months later they were a family of five as baby Alice completed them.

Amy and Sheldon had welcomed baby Stephen George six months after Megan's birth. Amy dealt with childbirth quite well, considering her age, but found it difficult to fall pregnant a second time. After endless rounds of IVF, Amy fell naturally with identical twin girls Melody Rae and Harmony Mae.

Halley felt she was the boss in the second generation of the gang. Having the same looks, and build, as her mother, with the voice of her grandmother and a confidence that overwhelmed everyone, even the adults. She treated her brother, Michael, like a slave and was very overpowering with the babies. Bernadette and Howard weren't' sure how to deal with this. They dreaded her thirteenth birthday, and high school. Michael was used to being bossed around and just saw it as second nature. He was a sweet little thing, with his father's mind and a love for space and anything to do with it.

Raj and Anu had decided to just have the one child, which they could spoil and dedicate everything too. Arya was as shy as her father until you got to know her. Then she had the sass of her mother and the temper of her grandmother.


	2. The Bully

Penny Hofstadter looked at the clock on her car and sighed. It was her first day back at work since her third child, Alice, had been born, and she wasn't coping very well. She knew the day care at Caltech would look after Alice just like they had looked after Megan and were still looking after Elliot, along with all the other kids the gang had produced over the last nine years, but it didn't make her feel any better. Alice was the most sensitive of the Hofstadter kids and Penny didn't know how she was going to cope. The traffic lights went green and Penny headed to her last appointment of the day, briefly considering ditching it and heading to Caltech.

Leonard looked repeatedly at the clock in his office. Elliot and Alice were only a few floors away, but it seemed ages since he'd dropped them both off. Gosh, Alice had cried. He was pleased Penny hadn't been there, it would have broken her heart. Leonard cursed himself for being the one to go part time, but there was no choice really. Penny was the one that earned the money, so it just made financial sense that three days a week Elliot and Alice would go into day care while two days they were looked after by him, it was also nice for Megan to be able to come home straight after school two days a week. Leonard wished it could be Penny that had been able to take the time off rather than him. They both felt bad for Megan, she had had to be there full time. True she had Halley and Michael there, but it was still five very long days, they were pleased Elliot and Alice didn't have to go that often.

Megan shrunk into her chair; sitting at the back of the class was exactly where she wanted to be. At six years old, she had no idea of time, but she knew that it wouldn't be too long until she had to go to after school club and spend time with her. The nasty girl that would bully her in the club. For some reason, she had left Megan alone at lunch that day, but she knew she wouldn't get away with it twice. Once the bell had gone for the end of school, Megan picked up her bag and walked as slowly as possible to the after school club. As she walked through the door, there she was, sitting in the same place she always was. Halley Rostenkowski-Wolowitz, Megan's bully.


	3. The club

Amy curled up in her chair and fell asleep. Harmony had kept her up all night. She had certainly named the twins the wrong way around. Melody would sleep all night, whereas Harmony was the one keeping them all up. She thought that this reclining chair had been a fabulous addition to her office. It had actually been purchased for test subjects, the university thought that they should be comfortable while Amy was running tests on them. But Amy used it more for herself than anyone else. She made sure that she did all her work, with many breaks that became a life saver. Sheldon's life.

Sheldon's latest project was coming to an end, and , for once, Sheldon was pleased. He had been working with Barry Kripkie, something that enraged him even now. Every evening after the long day at work Amy would walk down to Sheldon's office to pick him up before going down to the day care to pick up the twins, then drive to the school to collect Stephen. Amy's days were long; she thought that maybe Leonard had the right idea.

Megan stopped in her tracks and looked around the room for her best friend, Stephen; it didn't take long for Megan to spot him at the table, reading a book on space with Michael. Stephen was absolutely obsessed with space, much to Sheldon's annoyance, and declared that his uncle Howard was his hero. It had almost become too much for Sheldon when, about three weeks previously, Stephen had just causally mentioned that his goal in life was to become a MIT trained engineer. Megan rushed over and quickly immersed herself in a book. She knew there was no point in disturbing Stephen when he was reading about space. Nothing came between Stephen and space. The designs he had done already were remarkable for a six year old. Sheldon just wished that his passion was physics. Just like him.

Halley smiled sweetly at the staff in the after school club. For that few hours a day she was queen bee. Everyone at the club thought she was so sweet and wouldn't think for one minute that she would be unkind to anyone. Little did they know that behind the deep blue eyes and thick brown hair with natural blonde highlights she had a devilish side. Megan knew, Megan knew all too well, but Halley was just so clever in keeping things away from everyone else. Most of the bulling happened at school, but she knew that she wasn't safe anywhere. Megan wished she could tell someone, but didn't want to cause trouble by bringing it all up.

The week passed quicker than everyone had anticipated and before they knew it, Saturday was here. Every Saturday the gang would spend together, it had been part of the 'Moving Away agreement' that Sheldon had coerced Leonard and Penny into signing. They would each take it in turns to go round to each other's houses and spend at least four hours in each other's company. They had actually found it quite therapeutic after a busy week at work, but would never admit that to Sheldon. This week, it was Howard and Bernadette's turn to host, and Megan wasn't happy.


	4. I can't tell you

The Hofstadter family were the last to arrive at Howard and Bernadette's that day. Megan took as long as physically possible to get out of the car, but no one seemed to worry, she had always been a bit slow to do things and the whole family would often be waiting for her. When Penny and Leonard arrived, Bernadette seemed a bit stressed

"You okay?" Penny asked as she lifted Alice out of the car seat "you seem stressed"

"Amy and Sheldon have been here for hours" Bernadette answered "apparently Harmony had them up at 5am, she's teething"

"Oh no" Penny laughed, she remembered those days with Megan and Elliot and knew she had it all to come with Alice "I do sympathise"

"Me too" Bernadette put her head in her hands "but not at 8am on a Saturday morning"

Megan strolled in dragging her feet, Penny frowned, it wasn't usual for Megan to be so reluctant to spend time at the Rostenkowski-Wolowitz house

"Is Megan okay?" Bernadette asked, as if reading Penny's thoughts "she seems a bit sad"

"I don't know" Penny responded, "maybe she's tired, its been a hard week"

"maybe" Bernadette responded "I'm sure she'll liven up once she's been here a while"

But Megan didn't liven up, she spent as much time as possible glued to either Stephen's side or her mother's side. The girls all agreed that this was unusual, and Penny's mind was racing. She had never seen this in herself, but hoped that she wasn't being bullied as her father had been so relentlessly during his schooling. Penny vowed to have a word with Megan later, to see if she could find out what was going on.

Megan seemed to totally relax as soon as she got home from the day out. Leonard noticed this as odd, he had seen her behaviour earlier but hadn't really given it much thought, and hadn't spent much of the day with her as the men had spent most of it playing Howard's new PlayStation game.

"is everything okay with Megan" Leonard thought out loud once the kids had gone to bed "she seemed to totally change when we got home"

"I don't know" Penny responded "she seemed really on edge at Bernadette's but then totally fine when we got home, and she didn't leave mine, or Stephen's side all day"

"That's unusual" Leonard answered, puzzled, "she's normally such a confident little girl"

"I'll go have a word with her" Penny smiled "I think she's still awake"

Megan was a excellent reader, at six she was already reading books for nine year old's and loved her parent's reading Harry Potter to her in the evenings

"Megan" Penny and Leonard had been standing in the doorway of Megan's room for a few minutes before saying anything "are you okay?"

"yes mommy" Megan tried wiping the tears away from her eyes before her parent's noticed she had been crying, failing miserably

"what's wrong sweetie" Penny ran straight across the room to hug her eldest daughter "you haven't seemed yourself today"

"Nothing mommy" Megan tried to smile through her tears "I'm fine"

"You're not though" Leonard hugged her tight too "you need to tell mommy and daddy what's wrong so we can help you"

"Has something happened at auntie Bernie's house?" Penny suggested "you seemed fine once we got home"

"No, mommy" Megan answered unconvincingly "I played with Stephen today"

"I know sweetie" Penny answered "but you just seemed a little bit sad, and me and daddy want to help you"

"You can't" Megan realised what she had said and put her hand up to her mouth "I mean, there's nothing wrong"

"so there is something wrong" Penny could feel herself welling up, she had done pretty well in her life to breeze through school without being bullied. But she had watched her brother Randall's life become hell when he went to high school

"Megan" Leonard looked her in the eyes, and saw tears in them "you need to tell us what is happening, and who is doing it to you"

Megan burst into tears and rolled up the sleeves of her pyjamas. On the tops of her arms were a cluster of brown bruises

"Oh my god" Penny could feel the anger rising in her "what are they? Who did that?"

"They're pinches" Megan couldn't breathe, she was crying so hard "I can't tell you who did it"

"Was it Halley?" Leonard said in a deadpan voice. He had always been wary of Halley "did she do this to you?"

Megan sunk onto her bed and nodded, now even more sobs came out of her, causing Elliot to stir

"Get your dressing gown" Penny demanded "we are going there right now"


	5. Found out

Since the kids had grown up a bit, Bernadette was enjoying them more, having babies was amazing, but she didn't miss the broken nights, teething or phone calls from day care telling her that Halley had bitten one of her 'friends' again. This particular evening began not unusually with a film for the four of them to watch together and then a hour of reading or studying for the kids before bed. It was around 8pm when the doorbell rang. Howard and Bernadette looked at each other and sighed, their long-term lodgers, Stuart and Denise, had obviously lost their keys again

"YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO PUT YOUR KEYS AROUND YOUR NECK, STUART" Howard shouted, before realising that it wasn't them "oh hello Penny, Megan, is everything okay?"

"Not really" Penny answered, a little bit shorter than Howard was expecting "can we come in"

"Well, you kind of already are" Howard chuckled before realising that whatever Penny and Megan were there for, was serious "what's wrong?"

"It would appear your daughter has been pinching my daughter" Penny answered "and making her life at school hell"

"What?" Bernadette got up from the sofa instantly and went over to Penny "what is she supposed to have done?"

"Show them" Penny demanded Megan "show them your arms"

"I don't want to" Megan whispered "i don't want to get anyone in trouble"

Penny knelt down and looked into Megan's eyes "if you don't show them, we can't stop it" Penny wiped a tear away from her daughter's cheek "please show them"

Megan did as she was told; starting with her dressing gown and then her top, revealing a dark, fresh bruise that stretched across her back and looked a little bit like the milky way.

"Look at my daughter" Penny demanded "look at her back, oh my God, I hadn't seen that"

"she did that today" Megan whispered, even quieter this time "I didn't want to upset you, Mommy"

"Who did that?" Bernadette asked, she knew the answer, but didn't want to believe her nine year old daughter was capable of such violence "and what did they do it with?"

"Halley grabbed the baseball bat" Megan told them, referring to the kit that Howard had brought a few years ago in a failed attempt to get Michael into little league "and hit me with it"

"HALLEY" Bernadette yelled so loudly that it made Megan jump "GET DOWN HERE NOW, YOUNG LADY"

"WHY MOM?" came the reply "I'M STUDYING"

"BECAUSE I NEED TO DISCUSS SOMETHING WITH YOU" Bernadette answered, somewhat annoyed "NOW!"

Halley stomped down the stairs with a smile on her face, which dropped for a few seconds when she saw Penny and Megan

"Do you want to explain this, Halley?" Penny demanded "why has Megan got pinch marks on the top of her arms and a massive bruise across her back?"

"I don't know, auntie Penny" Halley answered, in a similar voice that Bernadette had used in the past to try and convince people she was harmless "is she okay? What happened?"

"You know what happened" Megan made everyone jump, she had finally found her voice "you pinched me, and hit me with your dad's baseball bat"

"No I didn't" Halley laughed "her voice had changed completely "I never touched you"

"Stephen saw" Megan responded "he saw you hit me with the baseball bat"

"You think anyone is going to believe you two little babies over me and my brother?" Halley scoffed "HA! In your dreams"

"are you going to let her talk to Megan like that?" Penny interrupted, addressing Howard and Bernadette "you can see the marks"

"HALLEY" Bernadette adressed her daughter "DINING ROOM, NOW"

Penny, Howard and Megan stood in the living room buy the front door. Bernadette's voice was so loud they could hear the shouting

"THIS IS AN AWFUL THING TO DO HALLEY" Bernadette shook her head "DO YOU KNOW WHAT ME AND YOUR FATHER HAVE BEEN THROUGH IN THE HANDS OF BULLIES?"

"BUT I DIDN'T DO IT MOM" Halley pleaded "HONESTLY, I DIDN'T, I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU BELIEVE THAT BABY OVER ME"

"SHE IS NOT A BABY, SHE IS SIX YEARS OLD" Bernadette couldn't believe what she was hearing "I DO BELIEVE HER, AND I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE LIKE HALLEY DEBORAH ROSTENKOWSKI-WOLOWITZ, NOW I DON'T KNOW WHY YOU'RE DOING THIS, BUT I WANT IT TO STOP, AND YOU NEED TO GO AND APOLOGISE TO BOTH PENNY AND MEGAN"

"BUT..." Halley tried to interrupt

"NOW"


	6. Why

Penny climbed back into the car and looked at Megan in the mirror

"Well done, sweetie" Penny smiled at her "you did well in there"

"Why is she doing it to me mommy?" Megan cried, "I just want to be her friend"

"I don't know" Penny was upset too "but I think we should take a break from seeing them for a while"

"What about school?"

"I can't do anything about school honey" Penny answered, reluctantly "but we can stay away at the weekends"

"What about uncle Sheldon? Wont he be sad that we can't all see each other?"

"You let me worry about uncle Sheldon"

Penny had to turn away so that Megan didn't see her tears. She was honoured to have such a kind, thoughtful daughter. In what was probably the worst time of her young life all she could think about was other peoples feelings. First of all she hadn't told Penny about the pain she was in because she didn't want to upset her mother and now she didn't want to spend time away from the Rostenkowski-Wolowitz's because she didn't want to upset Sheldon. What a special little girl"

Bernadette couldn't believe what had happened in her living room, for Halley to have made such a mark on Megan's back she must've hit her with some force. After Penny and Megan had gone, Howard and Bernadette had spent ages trying to talk to Halley, asking her questions about why she was doing it, but she wouldn't answer, just sat at the head of the table with her arms folded and a scowl on her face. After twenty minutes of questioning, realising there was no way she was going to answer they had sent her up to bed, and cancelled the play date she had with her friend the next day. They then asked Michael to come down and confirm what Megan had said, which he had.

"I can't believe she did that" Bernadette said to Howard after they had sent Michael back upstairs "why would she whack Megan on the back with a baseball bat?"

"I don't know" Howard answered, just as shocked as Bernadette "but we can't let this go on, she's nine years old, nine, and she beating her friends with sporting merchandise"

"I know"

Halley didn't go straight to bed that night. Instead she sat at her desk and pulled out the notes that she had found under the desks of her 'friends' Phoebe and Emily. She read them to herself

 _Have you seen what Halley is wearing today, talk about freak, Phoebe_

 _I know right, stupid little girl, I wonder if she'll ever be tall enough to take a swing at you like you did at her, Emily_

 _Haha, Stupid girl, thanks she's all that because her dad is a astronaut, Phoebe_

 _I know right, my mom said her had hit on her once, and he was so creepy, Emily_

Halley wiped a tear from her eyes and put the notes in her drawer with the other ones she had gradually collected over the last few months

"Somebody's in trouble" Michael taunted from the doorway "you're not allowed to have Phoebe round tomorrow"

"Good" Halley responded "I didn't want her to come anyway"

"Really?" Michael laughed "you were looking forward to it"

"Well it doesn't matter now, dummy" Halley hissed at him "go to bed"

Halley was pleased her plan had worked out, she didn't want to hurt Megan, and maybe she had hit her a bit too hard, judging by the bruise on her back. But it was a means to an end and would stop Phoebe from coming over and making Halley feel much smaller than she naturally was. Halley thought about telling her mom, but knew that tonight wasn't the right time. She would tell her tomorrow, if she finally plucked up the courage. Her mom could be very scary when she was angry.


	7. Sorry

For the next few weeks Halley left Megan alone, she also tried to stay away from Phoebe and Emily as much as possible, not easy considering there was literally no one else, now that Megan wasn't speaking to her, to be with at school.

Since Halley had started bullying her, Megan took to spending her lunchtimes reading books in the library at their school, it was about the only place she felt safe, as Stephen was there most of the time anyway. About three weeks after the incident with the baseball bat, Megan noticed that Halley had been spending quite a lot of time in there too.

"Hi" Megan approached Halley with caution, although it had been weeks since they'd spoken, she was still a bit nervous "are you okay?"

"Hello Megan" Halley wasn't sure how to deal with the situation either

"How are you?" Megan gave a little smile to her once best friend "you seem sad"

"You don't know me anymore, Megan" Halley told her, a little more nastily than she had intended

"it would be nice to get to know you again" Megan smiled "I miss you, Halley, I want you to be my friend again"

"are you sure?" Halley asked her "after what I did to you?"

"my bruises are healing" Megan shrugged "soon there will be nothing to remind me of what happened, but us being enemies is hurting our parents, and Arya's parents, and Stephen's parents"

"I'm really sorry" Halley smiled sincerely "I didn't mean to hurt you as much as I did"

"it's okay" Megan shrugged "I know the reason you did it"

"You do?"

"Sure, Phoebe and Emily were being unkind to you" Megan gave a sympathetic smile "I heard them talking about you in the bathroom"

"Thank you" Halley smiled

"what for?"

"forgiving me, and being my friend"

"that's okay" Megan shrugged "we're always in the library, Stephen and I, if you're feeling a bit lonely, we'll sit with you"


	8. I need you mom

Today was one of those moments when Leonard knew that going part time was entirely the right thing to do. Megan was very bright, just like he was, but she was far too quick to forgive. On the way home, Megan had told him all about what had happened with Halley that day, and how they were both friends again, which was lovely, but he knew that penny wouldn't be happy. she would feel that things couldn't be swept under the carper just like that and would still want Megan to be wary

Penny and Bernadette hadn't spoken since the incident with Halley and Megan. As far as Bernadette was concerned, Halley had been dealt with, but Penny didn't agree. she felt that a cancelled play date with someone who lived down the same street as Halley was nowhere near sufficient. However, being the bigger person had never been Bernadette's strong point, so Penny took the opportunity to be just that

"knock knock" Penny opened the door to Bernadette's office and smiled at her

"Penelope" Bernadette answered, curtly "what are you doing here?"

"I have a peace offering" Penny responded, holding up the plastic bag full of Bernadette's favourite Chinese food "I thought we could have lunch together"

"so are you accepting that Halley has been dealt with properly?"

"I probably would have done more" Penny answered "but she's your daughter and if you feel she has learnt her lesson, then I respect your decision"

"She shouldn't have done it" Bernadette admitted "I'm so sorry"

"I'm sure there will be things that Megan does over time that wont be kind, but I was just so shocked about the violence that Halley showed her, I never thought Halley was like that"

"me too" Bernadette agreed "that's my daughter, why would she be so violent?"

"have you asked her?"

"what?"

"have you asked her why she did it?"

"No, I'm so disgusted, to be honest, I've hardly spoken to her at all"

"maybe she needs to talk to you, maybe there's something going on, maybe for both Halley and Megan, you should talk to her and ask if she's okay"

Bernadette had spent the rest of the day mulling over what Penny had said, she knew she was right, generally people bullied others because they were being bullied themselves. Bernadette really hoped that this wasn't' the case, but had to accept it was possible. It was Howard's turn to pick up the kids that night, but Bernadette decided that she would go early and collect them from school to see if Halley would tell her what was going on.

It was a big surprise for Halley and Michael when Bernadette turned up early from school. Neither of them could remember a time when she had done it before. On the drive home, Bernadette thought that Halley seemed quieter than normal. She didn't say a word on the way home, which was extremely unusual.

"Halley, sit down" Bernadette told her once they had arrived home "we need to talk"

"okay mom" Halley was worried, it wasn't usual for Bernadette to do this, she was always working "am I in trouble?"

"Well" Bernadette took a deep breath "I'm still angry with you about what happened with Megan, but I want to ask you why you did it and I want you to tell me truthfully"

"okay"

"I know its very unlike you, Halley, you were so violent to Megan and that bruise must have hurt her so much" Bernadette could see the remorse in Halley's eyes as she spoke "so i need you to tell me what, if anything, is happening"

"I'm being bullied, mommy" Halley's honestly shocked even her "Phoebe and Emily are bullying me"

"since when?" Bernadette did not expect it to be Halley's best friends

"can I go and get something, Mommy?" Halley asked her, then I can show you"

Halley came back down with the notes and showed Bernadette, as she read through them, her eyes filled with tears to the point where she couldn't hold them in anymore and they fell down her face like a monsoon.

"the reason I hurt Megan on that day is because I wanted the play date with Phoebe to be cancelled, and I knew auntie Penny would find the bruises and then Megan would tell her" Halley admitted "I didn't mean to hurt her that bad"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Bernadette asked her through tears "you should have spoken to me"

"you're always working" Halley answered, truthfully "I can't talk to you because if you're not at work then you're working at home, and I couldn't speak to dad about this, I tried"

"Okay..." Bernadette was shocked by what Halley had said, and it upset her greatly "well that's going to change, yes I have to work so that we can go on holidays and live in this lovely house, and have all the lovely things we do, but I'm going to buy you a phone, and whenever you need me you can text me and I promise as soon as I can I will call you and you can talk to me about anything you want, even if its just to tell me what you had for lunch okay and at least once a month I will come home early and pick you up from school and bring you home here, both of you, and we'll have the whole afternoon together."

"Like uncle Leonard has time with Megan, Elliot and Alice?"

"Yes, exactly like that"

Bernadette and Halley had a lovely evening, Halley even helped prepare the dinner, it was a lovely bonding experience for both of them, and Bernadette had a chance to reflect on the day, the wonderful day, she had had with her daughter and vowed there and then that they would always come first, as they always should have done.


End file.
